 | Home > My Defender > My Camel, the ol Tdci 130 |
 
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| newhue Member Since: 28 Apr 2014 Location: Brisbane Posts: 351  
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Hi, here is my 2010 130 Tdci. I have built this for many years of traveling around Australia in mind. We have done two 5 week central Australia desert crossings, one being the very remote Madigan line. And a trip to the Victorian high country. We also get away camping a fair bit on weekends, and have a week of so annually on one of the 4 islands off the east coast of Brisbane and to the North.
 Click image to enlarge In Australia dealers often use the amount of cup holders a car has for its occupants as a selling point, sometimes 8 holders for 4 passengers, something every one needs. But true to Land Rover form the back of a Defender has 0. So I made this for the kids. Also doubles as a storage hidi hole when I pull the moulded plastic bit out.
Also made this to house the UHF, papers, and a few 12V sockets. The extra light works well for the rear seating. Icom make a beautiful hand set, crystal clear and easy to follow. I have tried to mount electronics as high as possible in this vehicle. The last one didn’t go so well so lesson learned. Click image to enlarge Due to the canopy on the back, rear vision was blocked. This reversing camera mounted on the sun visor doubles as a vanity mirror, plus reduces the amount of clutter on the dash. I also added some extended wolf mirror arms which work a treat getting a view past the canopy. Click image to enlarge Stereo, a no brainer. I added the speakers in the head lining which gave the car a “full” sound complemented by the standard under dash and rear speakers I also added. The rear speakers are mounted in ply, with marine carpet to trim them up. I put them towards the outside to try and get them projecting past the seats. The sub is grand. You can see later in the water tank pictures I mounted it on the rear wall of the car. I also added some self adhesive insulation to the rear wall as it was a bit drummy, but don‘t think its pictured. Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge
Hard to work out why LR don’t do this stuff. Simple and effective. Click image to enlarge I had this metal plate bent up to fit into the original battery box. Basically it leveled out the floor so I could fit a 105Ah deep cycle in with the huge standard battery. Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge And powers my circuit board. Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Had a canopy made for the tray. I off set the tie rail to accommodate a wrap around awning. This allowed the awning to stay snug to the vehicles roof line for tight tracks. It gives us 3.5m coverage down the side before wrapping around across the width of the tray, and 2.5m in width. I also put little gutters on the roof to channel any water to the corners of roof. We hang a couple alloy tables with fold out adjustable legs off the tray. The awning creates a large shady or water proof living space. Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Decided to put both spares up top. Side by side worked fine when I was running the original 31’ wheels. The arrangement is now end on end due to 33’s. My gas bottles tie onto the wheel mounting plate, and sit in the middle of the wheel Click image to enlarge Made some use of empty space. Being the daily work truck I have to basically leave the back as a tray. Also fitted a parts box above the rear cross member amongst other things. Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Put a 80lt water tank under the tray, this gives me 70lt of usable water..
Plus another usable 50lt in the rear seat box, and other 50lt on the floor. The floor tank is independent of the others for redundancy. The two main tanks run a small 4lt p/min electric pump. Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge There has been a few key accessories very close to my heat that have been added. I used the logo from a key ring that came with the vehicle, and glued it onto a generic opener to create something quite useful.
Click image to enlarge Put a set of these long range sill tanks in. It helped keep the weight low and central, and gave me anther 140lt on top of the standard 75. They equalize themselves and have a gauge, but just pump into the standard tank when it’s empty. Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge I bought some turbo heat shield to have an attempt at reducing the heat coming off the motor and exhaust. I succeeded to a degree, but it still gets warm in the foot well. Has me beaten why somedays its as cool as, and others really quite hot. I used Sikkafex to hold it on and left a 5 to 8mm gap as to not trap water. I also wrapped the exhaust at a latter date. It seemed to do very little. I may have bought a budget focused wrap however. Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Bit of this URL=https://imageshack.com/i/5suyddj] Click image to enlarge[/URL] bit of that Click image to enlarge and some of this
Click image to enlarge Because the type of touring we like doing consists of reasonably high speed over corrugations, or almost full articulation at low speeds we needed a shock that would do it for hour upon hour upon hour at GVM. I added some Koni 90’s to the set up, and can’t fault them. Beautiful shock and well worth the money. Also added some heavy duty trailing arms that weren't cranked. Had a mate bend his standard ones and holy smokes the whole set up falls apart. Click image to enlarge Also added some taller springs, but at the same compression rate as standard. This allowed the vehicle to sit at brand new empty height, but when it was loaded for expedition; and keep that classic landy ride. The springs were 1.5” taller in the front, and 1” in the rear. Click image to enlarge On the front I run a steel bar with electric winch with synthetic rope. I also have brush bars and side steps adding to the weight. My estimates is 65 to 70kg. But then there is also sill tank weight to add in the weight distribution. My car at GVM, 3.5T, has it’s weight evenly distributed over allowable max axel weight. 1580 front, 2200 rear. I lost faith in the factory P38 diff. The short pinion nose, flexing ring gear, and what seemed like endless set up issues on forums, I picked up a trusty Salisbury from another 130. Some HD axels, flanges, Detroit locker, new diff hat, and a shave and we were set for anything.
Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge My warranty was up, and just so happened 1 week later the EGR valve failed again. So it was time to rectify it once and for all. An ECU remap would disable the EGR, plus give me a bit more zoom. The choice was easy. Installing the map was easy as well. The car is still no rocket, but it’s far more drivable. Has a better spread of power and the torque is far better now days. The little 2.4 now pushes 120Kw, and 450Nm.
Fitted this bad boy in the process. This was not so easy, but persistence will get you there. Hard to say it’s worth the money, but it does do noticeable improvements, minor they may be.
Click image to enlarge I had been watching solar for a while, but always seemed to expansive to sway me from running the motor to recharge the battery on those week long camps. But alas, the prices have come down. I should have done it earlier really, this thing just cranks all day without a hassle or care. I can keep my fridge and beer at 1˚ and add what I like all day long. Run lights and what I like when I like, and by mid morning the next day the battery if full again. I made the panel quick release but don’t bother due to the MPPT controller, it works so well I just leave it where its mounted. The panel is 120W monocrystal, I went bigger in the hope when shaded it would still cover what an 80W would do. 80W is adequate for my setup needs theoretically.
Click image to enlarge Well that’s about it. The family really enjoy the personality of the 130, and the places it gets us in what seems effortless comfort and capability. Love them or hate them we are happy with ours. Of course we have plenty more trips in mind around Australia, the world will have to wait until the kids have grown and gone. Until then, I’ll keep reading and taking notes. Thanks for reading, hope you get something from my contribution. take care Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge |
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10th Jun 2014 11:33am |
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| keith Member Since: 15 Aug 2012 Location: Edinburgh Posts: 2211 
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G ' Day . Outstanding story and pics .
If you hear a loud bang , see a bright flash and get a whoosh of forward momentum , then you know you've lost your GAS canisters on the roof mate  Last edited by keith on 10th Jun 2014 12:03pm. Edited 1 time in total |
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10th Jun 2014 12:01pm |
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| newhue Member Since: 28 Apr 2014 Location: Brisbane Posts: 351
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Down here on the Empires southern front it was noted the Queens birthday was upon us again. So given we have a long weekend for such a celebration it was decided to head to the beach.
A couple hours north of home and we made the beach. 40km in total but our campsite was only about 1/3 of that away.
Made camp and settled in. The wife loves a good sleep in, but i’m the opposite. Nothing like getting up and greeting the day in.
My set up is pretty simple, nothing fancy. A couple alloy trays that hang of the truck with tent poles welded on for adjustability. The kitchen was close to the source but no luck on this weekend. No fish this time.
Now as luck would have it we were 75 meters from the bins, good for us as we didn’t have to stock pile rubbish, and also seemed to keep the neighbours away. But it also had this cool dune. Didn’t take long for the boogy boards to come out and a run smoothed out.
I recon it was a 45m drop over 70m. Got a good speed up at the bottom.
But you can’t do that all day. So went for a drive to the head land. There was an old light house there but it was being restored and all covered up. Still managed to gat a little walk in and pay a visit to the lee side for lunch. Caught up with some mates while the kids swam yet again.
Back to camp to chuck up the hammock for a snoose. Can’t go wrong there.
That was about it for the next few days. Monday came and some storm activity became dominant. But still not with out its beauty.
I sure had a good birthday celebration, hope the Queen had a goodie. |
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10th Jun 2014 12:31pm |
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| GREENI Member Since: 22 Aug 2010 Location: staffs Posts: 10379 
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Wow, having a quick look at work, I'll read in detail later this evening.
Thanks for sharing. |
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10th Jun 2014 2:06pm |
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| mrd1990 Member Since: 16 Aug 2012 Location: Wales Posts: 600  
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Nicely modified defender, looks like great fun!
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10th Jun 2014 2:08pm |
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| GUM97 Member Since: 05 Feb 2012 Location: Cheshire Posts: 3555 
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Great pictures, and great Defender! Very tasteful!
An engine to TDi for!
"Land Rover- Proudly turning drivers into mechanics since 1948" |
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10th Jun 2014 3:59pm |
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| custom90 Member Since: 21 Jan 2010 Location: South West, England. Posts: 20294
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Loved seeing the photos, that is a very well kitted out Defender.
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10th Jun 2014 5:02pm |
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| g-mack Member Since: 07 Jan 2014 Location: northumberland Posts: 1967
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excellent thread!! one of the best modified defenders on here i would have thought. proper useful mods too!!
My 109 thread
my youtube channel |
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10th Jun 2014 6:10pm |
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| AndrewS Member Since: 10 Apr 2007 Location: Hereford Posts: 3707 
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Very Nice
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10th Jun 2014 8:50pm |
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| Grouse Member Since: 16 Apr 2012 Location: on the hill Posts: 520 |
blimey that looks fantastic!
can I ask what size tyres you have fitted to the Wolfs in the 1st pic please? |
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10th Jun 2014 9:15pm |
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| Rosso_NI Member Since: 09 May 2014 Location: NI Posts: 275 
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Great thread
looks like you have prepared your 130 for everything |
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10th Jun 2014 9:59pm |
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| Pickles Member Since: 26 May 2013 Location: Melbourne Posts: 3782 
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Newhue, Hello from Aspendale. What a great vehicle you have built. There are some very very good vehicles on this Forum, and yours is up there with the best of them.
Pickles. |
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10th Jun 2014 10:23pm |
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| newhue Member Since: 28 Apr 2014 Location: Brisbane Posts: 351
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Thank you all, I have had fun building it, and more fun using it. I got all my ideas from others so hope I can return the favour.
tyres are 255/85/16 BFG M2. By gee I like these tyres and will happily go this path again. |
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11th Jun 2014 4:54am |
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| CR Member Since: 28 Jan 2010 Location: Ireland Posts: 947  
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I am blown away, all amazing
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11th Jun 2014 10:10pm |
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